


Uncertainties

by IlanaNight



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Arguments, Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-15
Updated: 2015-10-15
Packaged: 2018-04-26 12:02:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5004073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IlanaNight/pseuds/IlanaNight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dipper Pines is in love with a demon, but the whispers in his ears are turning him against Bill. Can the demon possibly love him in return?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Uncertainties

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Phius](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phius/gifts).



> sometimes drabble prompts that I get on tumblr actually turn out good enough for me to publish. this is one of those.

Dipper’s eyes were closed as he lied down on the grass, head in Bill’s lap, the demon’s fingers carding through his hair slowly. If Dipper listened close enough, he could hear the demon humming, if that was the right word. It was a sound somewhere between song and simple purring, a melody that Dipper couldn’t have picked out or remembered if he tried.

It was something the demon did quite often lately, and Dipper had begun to find it calming, something reserved for when they were alone together.

Strange, how at peace Dipper was in the presence of a creature who breathed chaos, but love worked in mysterious ways, he supposed. If love was what this was.

That thought began the downward spiral that Dipper had been hoping to avoid, but that had been plaguing him more and more often lately. He was almost certain he was in love with the demon, from what little he knew of love at the age of twenty with exactly three dates under his belt prior to Bill, none of which had been successful. He fell asleep with Bill’s face behind his eyelids and woke up with the demon’s name on his lips, heart racing.

Dipper Pines had thrown all caution to the wind when he took Bill’s hand that first night, the demon kneeling and pressing a kiss to it, and this time, instead of losing his soul in the deal, he’d lost his heart.

No one at home was happy with him for it, either.

Mabel’s mouth turned down into a concerned frown whenever Dipper stumbled in the door at an unholy hour, hair mussed and mouth bruised, purple marks already forming from the red bites on his neck and shoulders. She said nothing, but Dipper knew she worried for him and didn’t approve. He’d overheard her on the phone with her friends more than once, just a snippet of their conversations.

“It’s like he forgot everything Bill’s done to us… My brother’s head over heels, but… he couldn’t have picked a worse person to fall for, honestly.”

Ford was much more vocal in his protests, and was the largest reason Dipper had to meet up with Bill in the forest to see him in person. Stanford wouldn’t let the demon within sight of the Shack, and the last time Bill attempted to visit Dipper, they’d nearly broke out into a proper fight, the demon’s fingers flickering with flames as Ford brandished some otherworldly contraption sure to do actual damage to Bill in his human form. Even when the demon wasn’t around, Ford made his displeasure quite clear, stopping Dipper in the hallway on more than one occasion.

“You know what he did to me, right? I certainly remember telling you. Bill’s a _demon,_ Dipper. He can be absolutely charming, the kindest person you’ve ever met. He can be everything you’ve ever wanted and more, and convince you that he’s all you’ll ever need. And then he’ll rip the floor out from under you and laugh as you fall into the abyss.”

Dipper had turned away, not wanting to hear what his uncle had to say, and they hadn’t spoken since, but the brunet could feel Ford’s eyes on him whenever he left the house or came home while the researcher was still awake.

Of the three, Stan was the quietest in his discomfort, but his words cut Dipper the deepest. He’d only spoken of Bill once, in hushed tones where neither Ford nor Mabel could possibly overhear, and with a pleading expression on his face.

It was the most desperate Dipper had ever seen his uncle.

“Please, kid, promise you’ll be careful. I’m not gonna tell you not to be with him, because it’s your life, but… I’ve already lost part of my family to Cipher, and you and your sister are all I’ve got left. I can’t afford to lose you to him too… So promise me you’ll take care of yourself…”

“I promise, Grunkle Stan. I know what I’m doing, really.” Dipper’s voice had been proud and determined, but that only seemed to compound the sorrow and worry in Stan’s face, his sad smile wavering. As Dipper had walked out of the house with a wave, he was almost certain he caught Stan’s last words.

“That’s what he thought too.”

Needless to say, the Shack had been rather tense and quiet as of late.

Dipper wanted to ignore it all, wanted to tell himself that Bill was different now, that the demon had reformed and changed his ways, and most days, he could pretend just that. The Bill that dropped down from the trees to walk in the shade beside him, that took Dipper up in his arms and danced with him under the light of the moon, that pressed hungry open-mouthed kisses to his lips and whined for him, was _nothing_ like the demon who’d possessed him all those years ago.

But that Bill wasn’t the one everyone else saw. That Bill presented himself to Dipper alone, and sometimes, even the brunet got glimpses of what was behind that.

Stirred to anger and passion, Bill had scoured an entire section of forest and sworn its ultimate destruction when his day came. More than once, his hands were flecked with blood when they reached for Dipper’s, the red specks only coming off once Bill himself noticed them and magicked them away, after the human had already spotted them. And above all, the demon himself acknowledged that his plan was still in progress- though he called it _theirs_ now, and perhaps that was why Dipper never felt the betrayal sink in.

“One day, Pine Tree, this world will be ours. I will claim all that is rightfully mine and you… you will rule by my side in a throne of your own. Doesn’t that sound _grand?”_

And it did, Dipper wouldn’t lie. A life beside Bill, in a position of power unlike anything he’d ever had, the thought enticed him. And it kept Bill by him, kept Bill _with_ him, and that was what Dipper craved more than anything. He was addicted to the demon’s presence like a drug, and he never wanted to know life without it.

But beneath it all, he was terrified. He had no idea what Bill’s grand designs were, no idea what his part in them would be, and no idea what would happen to anyone else. Bill didn’t speak of them. Bill didn’t speak of much at all, really. Dipper was in the dark on a lot of things, and in that darkness, the voices in his head- which sounded suspiciously like his family- began to pick at everything he and the demon shared.

Dipper Pines was certain he was in love with Bill Cipher. He couldn’t doubt that, not with all of the evidence against him. But what he was entirely uncertain of was how the demon felt, if he felt anything at all.

Could demons even _experience_ love?

The thought was depressing enough to return Dipper to the present, eyes opening with Bill’s fingers still in his hair, the demon still humming that same tune, or at least, Dipper thought it was the same.

“I was beginning to think you’d drifted off to sleep, Pine Tree, if it weren’t for the fact that I couldn’t feel you dreaming,” Bill’s voice was light, a smile on his face as he looked down at Dipper, brushing the human’s hair from his face and catching sight of his frown, “Something is troubling you.”

It wasn’t a question. Very few things were when it came to Bill. The demon knew him too well to really be mistaken on Dipper’s emotions these days.

Sighing, Dipper shifted his position so that he was looking up at Bill more fully, though he kept his head resting on the demon’s lap, “Just… been thinking, I suppose. Some stuff that’s been on my mind for a while.”

With a raise of his eyebrow, Bill tilted his head, interest piqued, “Are you going to share, or am I supposed to guess? I _have_ promised not to read your waking mind, after all.”

Dipper bit his lip, finally sitting up and separating from the demon, crossing his legs and sitting opposite Bill, though their knees were still touching. It took him a moment to gather this thoughts, to voice the question that had been swirling in the deepest, most paranoid corners of his mind, “Do you ever think we should just stop this?”

Whatever Bill had been expecting, it clearly wasn’t this, the demon’s face flickering through a full range of emotions. Shock came first, then a moment of confusion before the demon settled on a betrayed sort of rage, mouth curled down and a heat in his eyes. His voice was taut when he answered, clear tension in his posture, “Stop what, Dipper? Stop _this?_ Stop everything we’ve been working on, everything that we _are?”_

On the defensive now, Dipper put his hands up, trying to placate the demon who was already on the verge of singeing the grass beneath them, sparks flickering around his fingers, “I-I don’t know, Bill. I mean… I don’t know how you feel, I don’t know if you love me or if you care about me at all, I don’t even know what to _call_ what we have, and that… that _can’t_ be _healthy,_ can it?”

His words failed in their purpose, though, as the demon stood swiftly, too fast for Dipper to catch him before he was halfway across the clearing, fists clenched by his sides, feet scorching the earth, the grass closest to Bill drying and wilting to brown, “Maybe _I_ don’t know _either,_ did that ever _occur_ to you?”

Bill’s voice was low and dangerous, the tone that mirrored his enraged growl in his true form and Dipper stood but kept his distance. He needed to calm Bill down before the demon wreaked havoc on the forest, but going to Bill now could mean his own death. He’d been burnt by Bill’s anger before, and now it was directed largely at him.

Dipper opened his mouth to speak, to apologise, to say anything but before he could, Bill continued, still facing away from him, “I’ve given up _so much_ for this, Dipper. So much for _you!_ I could have gone through with my plans a _dozen times over_ by now, but each of them would have ended with you _dead._ And so I _waited_ and I redesigned _everything_ and I took _so many risks_ and what do I get in _return?_ An _ungrateful,_ **whining _brat!”_**

With his words came a shock of fire that scorched a ring around him, the flames licking at Bill’s feet and spreading out in a complex wheel, one that Dipper could draw by heart now. When the demon turned on his heel, his one of his eyes had fallen into abyssal blackness, the other a scathing crimson red, pupils narrowed to slits. His teeth were bared and Dipper could see even from his relatively safe distance that Bill’s canines were elongated and sharp, the fangs freed from their facade of humanity.

“I guess in the end it was all for naught. Wasted time, wasted effort. And I do so _hate_ waste…”

Running forward, Dipper stopped at the ring of fire, unable to go any further, though he reached out to Bill with desperation, anything to stop the demon from going through with whatever this was.

“Bill! Stop!”

The demon’s mouth widened in a gruesome sneer, eyes cold in rage as they looked up at Dipper, a scoff escaping him, “And _why should I,_ Pine Tree?”

Spurred on by impulse and the heat of the moment, Dipper yelled out the only thought his heart could voice, “Because I love you!”

For a split second, the flames flickered and almost died. For a split second, that familiar gold almost returned to Bill’s eyes. For a second, the demon looked almost human again. And then it all fell away, the flames returning to their peaks.

“I don’t believe you.”

An unholy shriek and the fire was swallowing Bill whole, returning him to the Mindscape before exploding outwards, the flames licking along Dipper’s skin and knocking him to the ground as the sky went black.

 


End file.
